Rating: Big ole swoony love.Did I finish?: Yes -- in one sitting. I couldn't stop.One-sentence summary: Three lives unfold around an soup seller in Vietnam. Reading Challenges:Historical Fiction, South Asian

Do I like the cover?: Yes, but -- in the novel, there's a discussion about how the pastoral art featuring Vietnamese countrysides really whitewashes what modern Vietnam is like -- so it seems like a missed opportunity by not featuring something more urban.

First line: Old Man H'ung makes the best pho in the city and has done so for decades.

Did...I read this in five hours flat?: YES. I started it Sunday morning and finished it by Sunday evening, pausing only to meditate on a line or read a passage to my wife.

Did...I grow kind of desperate for pho while reading this novel?: YES. Find a local Vietnamese restaurant when you start so you can savor the broth and noodles, too!

Why did I get this book?: Ever since Graham Green's The Quiet American, I've been interested in '50s Vietnam and I'm a sucker for food as character.

Review: The best books are those that can take a topic or plot that is alien to you and yet make you feel yourself in the story. Initially I wasn't swooning with excitement about this book -- interested, yes, but nothing fancier than that -- and yet, by the second chapter, I was captivated.

I often found myself stopping to read passages to my wife so we could both savor the lovely language or interesting insight about Vietnam. There's a prose-poem feel at times -- the contemporary sections are in present tense, the revolutionary sections in past tense -- but the writing isn't obtuse or florid or aloof. I loved all the characters and cared about each story. The novel moves back and forth between the present (2007ish, I believe) and the past (1950s and '60s) seamlessly, and like Hung's delicately flavored broths, the story reveals more and more in delicious, tasty layers.

Don't let an unfamiliarity with Vietnam dissuade you from reading this book: ultimately, all you need to know is presented in the story. The conflicts and joys shared by the characters are easy to relate to and emphasize with and the historical events are given enough context to be meaningful. I found it impossible not to be sucked into this lovely, evocative, moving novel.

***

GIVEAWAY! I'm giving away my very gently used copy of The Beauty of Humanity Movement! To enter, leave a comment and an email address.

For another entry, please stop by on Monday for my Q and A with the author, Camilla Gibb and leave a comment there. Open to US and international readers! Contest ends April 9. UPDATE: The publisher is offering a copy as well, so I've got an additional copy to give to US/CA readers!

Your enthusiasm for this book really inspires me, and along with the fact that I have been reading so many amazing reviews of this book, I am definitely sure I need to read it. You read it all in one sitting as well?? So, so impressed, both of you and the book that held you captive. I would love to be entered in your giveaway!

Wow, that is quite a glowing review -- I love stories with food as a main ingredient (sorry for the pun), and I like narrations that switch back and forth in time, provided, as you say here, the author does it seamlessly.This is definitely one I want to check out.Thanks!

You present a slightly different approach to book reviews, a more personal approach, and I like it. Sounds like The Beauty of Humanity Movement is a good read, especially if you read it in 5 hours! Enter me in the contest, please. riverboat38@hotmail.com

Immediately when I saw this in my RSS feed, it captured my attention because I recognized the front cover from Halong Bay. I visited Vietnam three summers ago and LOVED it. Plus Halong Bay is beautiful.

Ok, first I see this: "Did I finish?: Yes -- in one sitting. I couldn't stop." And then you compare this to Barbara Kingsolver and Jhumpa Lahiri, and you've got my complete attention. I cannot wait to check out this book!

Thanks so much for being on the tour. I'm glad you discovered such a fantastic book.

I definitely have to check this one out now, your enthusiasm for it is so great! :) Anytime someone loves a book so much that they actually can't put it down and read it all in one sitting, I take note. I'd love to win a copy, so thank you for hosting this giveaway!

Wow - I seldom get to read anything substantial in just one sitting (I did read Diary of a Wimpy Kid the other night, though!). I've read several other positive reviews of this book and since I'm currently reading a lot of Southeast Asian authors, I'm particulary intrigued. Thanks for offering up your copy for giveaway.

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I love Bloggiesta for reminding me to brush up and take of my blog, and doing it "in community", so to speak, makes this housework a little more fun.

Given my earlier whining about feeling out-of-it with my blog, I'm really excited there's a mini-event this coming weekend in which I can do some backend work here.

My to do list is pretty simple:make a top 10 of 2016 post (even if it is just a list!)review the book I just finished!I'd like to start 2017 without a backlog of reviews, so it feels important I keep up. We'll see if I'll tackle my 2016 backlog. (Perhaps for another Bloggiesta!)

Rating: Liked a great deal. Did I finish?: Yes. One-sentence summary: The life of a 16th century Spanish girl, who rose from poverty to riches following the conquistadors of Chile.Reading Challenges:Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: Yes but it's not my favorite among the various editions (the 2006 hardcover is stunning).

I'm reminded of...: Laura Esquivel, Sandra Gulland

First line: I am Inés Suárez, a townswoman of the loyal city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura in the kingdom of Chile, writing in the year of Our Lord 1580.

Did... I feel a bit uncomfortable with the wholly pro-conquistador plot line?: YES, but the perk of these P.S. editions is the extras. This book includes an NPR interview with Isabel Allende who talks about keeping Inés' voice authentic to the era and having to, essential…

I have a half dozen posts started and lingering unfinished -- including my top ten reads of 2017 post -- but work and home life (including a string of minor-but-expensive home dramas) has been enough to keep me from having enough brain cells to finish a post.

The 24 in 48 Readathon is this last weekend in January and I'm so looking forward to it. You only (ha, "only") have to read for 24 hours within a 48-hour period, and I'm hoping to scrape out that time, even if it means staying up all night in the living room. I'm so behind on my 2018 reading (basically just dragging my feet through Things Fall Apart) and I'm looking forward to being able to spread out some books around me and start 'em all until something sticks.

In the readathon queue are:

Toni Morrison's Beloved, Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists, and Middlemarch. I actually have about ten thousand books jostling for my attention and for once, I'm actually overwhelmed by my options!

A 30-something married lesbian with a thing for literary fiction and historical novels. But I'm also having a pretty torrid affair with gritty noir and some paranormal /supernatural fiction. I love interesting heroines, gorgeous prose, place as character, and the occasional werewolf.

Popular posts from this blog

I love Bloggiesta for reminding me to brush up and take of my blog, and doing it "in community", so to speak, makes this housework a little more fun.

Given my earlier whining about feeling out-of-it with my blog, I'm really excited there's a mini-event this coming weekend in which I can do some backend work here.

My to do list is pretty simple:make a top 10 of 2016 post (even if it is just a list!)review the book I just finished!I'd like to start 2017 without a backlog of reviews, so it feels important I keep up. We'll see if I'll tackle my 2016 backlog. (Perhaps for another Bloggiesta!)

Rating: Liked a great deal. Did I finish?: Yes. One-sentence summary: The life of a 16th century Spanish girl, who rose from poverty to riches following the conquistadors of Chile.Reading Challenges:Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: Yes but it's not my favorite among the various editions (the 2006 hardcover is stunning).

I'm reminded of...: Laura Esquivel, Sandra Gulland

First line: I am Inés Suárez, a townswoman of the loyal city of Santiago de Nueva Extremadura in the kingdom of Chile, writing in the year of Our Lord 1580.

Did... I feel a bit uncomfortable with the wholly pro-conquistador plot line?: YES, but the perk of these P.S. editions is the extras. This book includes an NPR interview with Isabel Allende who talks about keeping Inés' voice authentic to the era and having to, essential…

I have a half dozen posts started and lingering unfinished -- including my top ten reads of 2017 post -- but work and home life (including a string of minor-but-expensive home dramas) has been enough to keep me from having enough brain cells to finish a post.

The 24 in 48 Readathon is this last weekend in January and I'm so looking forward to it. You only (ha, "only") have to read for 24 hours within a 48-hour period, and I'm hoping to scrape out that time, even if it means staying up all night in the living room. I'm so behind on my 2018 reading (basically just dragging my feet through Things Fall Apart) and I'm looking forward to being able to spread out some books around me and start 'em all until something sticks.

In the readathon queue are:

Toni Morrison's Beloved, Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalists, and Middlemarch. I actually have about ten thousand books jostling for my attention and for once, I'm actually overwhelmed by my options!

Rating: Liked a great deal.Did I finish?: I did -- raced through this one. One-sentence summary: British-born Wellesley grad Maggie Hope is hired as a typist for Prime Minister Churchill but finds herself embroiled in more serious, and dangerous, tasks.Reading Challenges:Historical Fiction

Do I like the cover?: I adore it -- I love the retro/vintage feel of the style -- so striking!

First line: Half an hour before Diana Snyder died, she tidied up her desk in the typists' office of the Cabinet War Rooms.

Do... I love browsing the author's blog?: YES. Not only does she seem like someone who I would love to be friends with, her blog is chock-full of fabulous historical pictures and tidbits as well as cocktail recipes. Be still my heart!

If you're part of a group/tradition that does gift-giving in the winter, you're probably being barraged with ideas, so I'm sorry to add to the pile up. But I looooooooooooooooooove recommending things and I love gifting, so I'm inserting myself into the melee.

I've bought this book for myself, and I plan on gifting it to people who are in their mid-20s and their mid-50s (translation: this book is great whether you're new to adulthood or old hat). This wonderfully irreverent and accessible guide has totally changed my relationship with wine, and I've had to stop myself from chasing people around liquor stores recommending this book. Imagine you have a non-snobbish friend who is well-versed in drinking good wine, and she knows you're on a budget but that you also have aspirations to eat/drink a little more…